A day that started with a lovely meander through Angel and a few decent ales ended in the disappointment of an eighth defeat in nine games for Rafa’s Mags. Along with wins for West Ham and Crystal Palace, failure to avoid defeat saw NUFC slip in to the bottom 3 for the first time since the opening weekend of the season.

On arrival at the concourse in the Clock End I was surprised at how peaceful it all seemed. Didn’t have to queue for my piss-flat, over-priced and miserable mass-produced cider, got a nice section of urinal all to myself and didn’t see anyone lob plastic pint glasses in to crowds of people.

A lingering air of resignation or just a collective unconscious lethargy brought on by being in another football stadium selling UTTERLY SHITE BEER?

Five changes to the side that lost at home to Everton on Wednesday saw Elliott in for Darlow, Joselu in for Gayle, Murphyfor Ritchie, Hayden for the suspended Shelvey and Pérez for Diamé.

A fairly uneventful opening 20 odd minutes saw us sitting deep and attempting to counter and this was working just fine. Arsenal hadn’t created anything of note and the absolute apathy of their fans seemed to rub off on their players (or maybe it was the other way around).

And then they scored.

Özil will rightly take the plaudits for a beautiful connection of foot to ball which saw him volley one straight in to the middle of the NUFC goal and the back of the net. However, the frustrating aspect of it was the fact that, as seems to have happened on numerous occasions lately, the defence looked like it’d done enough to get the ball cleared but the player (on this occasion Lejeune) hasn’t got enough on the clearance. Özil did what he did and, unfortunately, with a team whose confidence is as brittle as NUFC’s is at present, it was always going to be difficult to get something from the game after going a goal down.

The first-half almost petered out. I recall looking at the countdown clock and thinking the game was going very slowly. Arsenal didn’t look particularly busy and it looked like Newcastle weren’t going to commit to pushing for an equaliser due to the fear of falling further behind before the break.

The second-half followed a similar pattern to the first. A quiet stadium, two teams on the pitch not really offering much to arouse passions and a sideways rain ensuring that the MOTD highlights will be lucky to stretch to more than 60 seconds.

Then suddenly with around 20 minutes to go the Arsenal lads started looking a little fragile. For all their possession, they hadn’t really threatened, save a decent stop from Rob Elliott not long after the break, and they seemed to be gripped by a little fear that they were too close to the end to risk going for a second and leaving themselves exposed.

Matt Ritchie, on as a sub, started really impacting on the game. Murphy forced a good save out of Cech, Merino had a deflected shot that flashed just past the post and Pérez has a couple of close efforts. Unfortunately, the equaliser never came, the final whistle went after 4 minutes injury-time and the winless run extended to 9 matches.

However, I walked away thinking that the performance wasn’t as discouraging as the stats might suggest (Arsenal having a huge 71% of the possession) and for me this was the closest the side has been to the pragmatic and functional football that served us so well up to and including October 21st (the day Palace were defeated). We were competitive and the players grafted to keep it tight. Having Lascelles back in the side makes an obvious difference (I believe we haven’t conceded more than 1 goal in a game whilst he’s been on the pitch) and Ritchie was positive when coming off the bench. Additionally, Merino and Hayden worked fairly well together in the centre of the pitch and there were signs of life.

We could’ve snatched a point and I have to take solace in that. We’re in a massive battle to survive, clearly, and we’re obviously desperate for new signings. How much money Benítez will have and who might be giving him it is something that we can only speculate on right now. All I do believe is that, regardless of who might arrive and what might happen, I can’t think that there are many managers who could do significantly better with what Benítez has to work with. West Ham away is huge (they’re all huge when you’re in the bottom 3 I guess) and all that can be done at this point is to continue backing the team. Howay the Lads.

NORMAN RILEY – Follow Norman on @likethegoat

true faith’s match-day newsletter, THE SPECIAL is still available. To get at THE SPECIAL just click here.

The latest issue of true faith (TF 135) is now available for you to download. Just click on the image below and its all yours. You can download and read the fanzine offline if you choose. The true faith fanzine is completely FREE of charge and we think it works great on a tablet or i-pad for the old school, read the fanzine whilst stretched on the sofa or sitting on the netty experience.

true faith is Newcastle United’s longest running and most widely read fanzine. It is one of the UK’s most popular, well-known and respected fanzine titles. Since 1999, true faith has been providing the alternative view on life at Newcastle United and football in general. true faith is predominantly written and designed by people who pay to watch Newcastle United home and away.

Related Posts

Strange game managed to find a pub with it on, arsenal should have been out of sight without ever hitting top form but a late rally from us could / should have rescued a point. It was a mistake for rafa to drop Elliott he put in another strong display for us here. Shame the late chances fell to Perez especially the header which Mitrovich would have buried although he wasn’t on the bench. Can’t for the life of me understand why Mbemba isn’t playing ahead of others in defence. Diame coming on at 1 nil down was laughable. It’s understandable in that fixture but I’ve never seen a Newcastle team set up that defensively before. If we are going to lose every game can we at least attempt to play some football in the process please

For what it’s worth I predicted that we would end up in the bottom 3 this weekend to my mates. Now i’m predicting that we will get out of it ! Listening to radio Newcastle after the game was embarrassing. Tit of a host was inviting people on to wine about Rafa, saying why does he not get enough stick, & boy did the fuckers come on. Winging about the quality we have & blaming Rafa for wasting money in the summer !. You couldn’t make it up, for what we spent you only get average at best, do these morons seriously believe he wanted bargain basement players. I’ve heard people say they are not trying ! No, they are just not good enough ! Please stay with the manager & the team (whoever he picks), because we really do all need to stay UNITED.

Never understand why anyone who buys beer in a football stadium expects anything else….. and does it time and again. Perfectly good pubs around most stadiums apparently sell alchohol, in glasses, and which is not utterly sh*te.

The Scottish prick on radio newcastle needs shit canned quick he is a total stroker. We missed the kick off due to cockney wankers blocking fucking bus lanes with their cars but on arrival we also sensed the calmness of the away end – second half we picked it up and could have got a point. I was in row nine and still got wet – shit roof shit ground! Encouraging from the team but hard times ahead.

tf136 latest FREE issue

NUFC foodbanks

#AshleyOut T-shirt

All profit from the sale of this t-shirt will be used to kit out the new true faith studio in order to enhance independent fan-led coverage of Newcastle United. None of it is for our personal gain.

Online Merchandising Operation

tf badges

Classic Football Shirts

Phoenix Taxis – true faith sponsor

The Sir Bobby Robson Foundation

Newcastle United Supporters Trust

Sign up for your free matchday newsletter

* indicates required

Email Address *

First Name

Last Name

Homage to Murcia

Long standing true faith writer, Tony Higgins who regular readers will recognise from his Real Spain articles has his first book out now. Travel with Tony through the undergrowth of Spanish football and life for only £4:99. Only in digital format. Get it on Amazon here.

JOIN THE FSF

Supporters Direct

FREE back issues

tf on twitter

tf Video Blog

The true faith video blog is our straight to camera opportunity for those who pay to watch Newcastle United at home and away give their opinions on all areas of the club both on and off the pitch. Our intention is for the Video Blogs to entertain, inform and amuse you. Doubtless you will agree and disagree from time to time. The Video Blog is open to any match going supporter and if you and your mates would like to be guests just get in touch and we'll make appropriate arrangements.

tf on Facebook

The true faith Facebook pages are the open forum for readers to have a bit crack, exchange opinions, news, thoughts on Newcastle United, football in general and whatever else might take their fancy.
It's a closed site so you have to apply to join. We want it to be a lively place for debate but there certain guidelines we expect everyone to follow. Basically this involves not being a twat. Our definition of a twat is variously racists, sexists, homophobes, bullies, bigots, smartarses and those who want to punt anything to readers without our permission.

tf weekly podcast

The true faith Podcast is usually released on a weekly basis and hosted by Alex Hurst and a standing cast of contributors. From time to time there will be guests and special features. It is also linked into the show true faith produces in partnership with Radio Northumberland. If you would like to appear as a guest on the true faith Podcast just get in touch and we'll make the arrangements.